Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday which shouldn't surprise anyone, since it is all about food! But in actuality, for me, it is more than that. It is the one holiday that is about getting together to celebrate with each other. There are no expectations about gift-giving, which so many other holidays include. There is no place that you need to go to see anything. And it is a time for me to reflect about how privileged and blessed my life is. As a physician I see so many people whose lives are difficult; whose families have devastating illnesses, who have financial troubles, emotional troubles and so many stresses. I do have my problems, but I always feel that they are solvable and I often say to myself, "there, but for the Grace of God, go I". So every year at Thanksgiving, I give thanks for my many blessings and plan to try to give to others throughout the year who are less fortunate than I. For what goes around, comes around!

And at my house this year, what is going around is a heritage turkey. Everyone has their own recipe for turkey. I have been tweeking mine for years, and have been lifting from many recipes that I have read from a variety of sources over the years. But this is what I have been doing the last few years, and I have no plans to change it.

HERITAGE TURKEY
First you have to buy a heritage turkey(www.heritagefoodsusa.com). This may mean that you have to sell your first born, or at least rent him out as they average $12/lb including shipping. And yes, I know, you can get a turkey for free this time of year. This was pointed out to me by my husband when he saw the charge on our credit card. But I'd rather spend my money on delicious food than other forms of entertainment. And you do have to figure in the amount of time you will spend with this bird. With stuffing, cooking, eating, cleaning, and eating leftovers, it really comes down to less than a $1/person/hour. And really, what else can you do for entertainment at that price????

STUFFING
Ingredients

seasoned corn bread stuffing (I use Mrs. Cubbison's)
Broth (see below)
Butter (NOT margarine)
1 onion/bag
1/2 cup celery/bag
1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage/bag
1-2 eggs/bag

Broth
Take the neck, gizzard and heart. (I throw out the liver because I hate liver.) Throw it in a pot with the tops of the celery, an onion and a couple of carrots, a few garlic cloves and some salt. Put in some water and cook for about an hour to make some broth. You will also use this for gravy, so make sure you don't boil it all away.

Cook the celery and the onion in the butter. Don't brown it, but cook it until it is soft. Add the sausage. Discard the excess grease and then when it is cool enough to handle, add it to the corn bread. Add 1 cup melted butter, broth and mix together. When not too hot, add the eggs until fairly moist.

STUFFING THE TURKEY
This is when it is helpful to know a surgeon. I learned the proper technique to separate layers from going to a lot of Cesarean sections. When you are a pediatrician, there really isn't much to do until the baby is born. So you watch the ob's technique. Now, I've watched quite a few over the years, and I've got to say, Dr. Laurie is the one who is responsible for my expertise with a turkey. She really cares about her patients and tries to minimize trauma to their bodies during surgical procedures. She gently blunts dissects between tissue layers and I always try to emulate her technique. Clearly, it is not nearly as important to do this as well when cooking as during surgery, but why not imitate the best? So Laurie is one more person I give thanks to!
Anyway, I put my stuffing underneath the skin and above the breast meat. This accomplishes 2 things - it keeps the turkey very moist and imparts a delicious flavor to it. I do take incredible care in the separation of the layers and since I make a lot of stuffing I extend the separation and put it in the spaces between the legs and the wings and any where that I can.
I then put celery, onions, carrots, salt, sage, parsley and peppercorns loosely in the cavity.
I grease the turkey completely with olive oil, put it in a roaster with a cover and into an oven at 400 degrees

COOKING
I cook this turkey much faster than recommended for turkeys. It usually takes about 2 to 3 hours for a 20 pound turkey.

I hope that your Thanksgiving is wonderful and that you find much in your life to give thanks for.

Modified Caprese Salad

When I was in Italy four years ago, I ate well. One of the things that I really enjoyed were the Caprese salads with tuna. Italian tuna is packed in olive oil, and oh-so-delicious. Nowadays, you can find oil packed tuna in most markets. When I make this salad, I tend to use spinach as the base for added nutrition. Here is my version of this salad.



Tuna packed in olive oil
Basil
Tomatoes
Fresh mozzarella or burrata cheese
Spinach
Additional olive oil, if desired

The amounts of each ingredient can be varied to suit your needs. I don't really care about the amount of spinach, since it has very few calories. However, the cheese and tuna do, so I like to put in one serving of tuna per person, and whatever is easiest in terms of the cheese. If I'm buying burrata from Trader Joe's, I'll usually put in one large ball, which is four servings. For two people, this is fine. If I'm using tomatoes from my yard, I'll put in as many as I can and supplement if necessary, until it looks like there's the right amount of tomato in there.

Slice tomatoes, slice cheese, chop basil, and break up the tuna. Toss all ingredients in a bowl. Enjoy!